Hetalia: World Series Episodes #42-45

Life in the world of Hetalia seems to be fraught with countries doing little but laughing at each other and being snarky.

What They Say:After an interrupting bull turns the tide of a war, the saga of Boss Spain and Chibi Romano continues! Can Spain deal with the struggles that come with taking care of little Romano? Also, can Spain get his hands on a yummy Churro?

The Review:Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)As Hetalia rolls forward, the activities of its characters continue to amuse. The opening segment alone has a fun little piece that shows the surprise as Spain takes over little Romano and has to deal with all that it entails. Considering what we've seen of modern day Italy, it's not the kind of place you want to take over. Spain himself has his own issues and coping with those on top of dealing with Romano is certainly adorable, especially as it seems like Romano will eat him out of house and home. There's also the problem of other European countries that are eyeing what's going on with the potential for striking one or the other in order to score some victories, gain some land or just to tick off Spain.

There's a lot of powers on the move in this fifteenth century period of Europe and the Ottomans in particular are lining up their plans since there's a lot of players and potential plans to be laid out. Some of what gets dealt with at this time with power consolidations and the like are fun pieces such as seeing the arranged marriage between Poland and Lithuania, where we see Poland so completely against it since he doesn't like other people and gets all panicky in their presence. It's fun to watch the way he reacts while everyone tries to soothe him and urge him along. There's even a decent little history lesson attach to it afterwards that shows where the two countries went and how the whole arrangement worked out.

There's a really cute episode about the two that focuses on them telling stories about each others' capitals and their history. Poland tells a tale about a scary dragon that used to reside there and caused all manner of problems until a prince went into the cavern to deal with it. It's a serious story told with humor that works well since the two don't mesh up. Lithuania's story tells the tale of a time when the king went into the Sacred Forest and had a dream about a wolf wearing armor, which like the story with the dragon is done seriously and looks really neat as he tells it. Of course, Poland can't be bothered to listen to anything anyone else has to say and he spends his time doing something with his body that should only be done in private.

In Summary:While the majority of this batch of episodes focuses on events back in the fifteenth century, we do get a World War II piece at the end that's quite a bit of fun as some of the Allies get stranded on an island and survival is going to be a problem. They play well with the stereotypes of each of the characters, something that's harder to see with some of the older segments, and America of course comes across as he always does and you just have to shake your head and want to slap him. Hetalia has a good run of episodes overall here but I keep coming back to the same problem with the World Series seasons in that as it spreads to the other countries, it's really hit or miss with what works. With the Axis Powers, it was consistently spot on and worked well, but there's not quite as much to engage with nor is there a consistent storyline running through it as a background plot, which makes it more haphazard overall. It has its moments and certain characters and situations charm, but it doesn't hold you like that season did.